help! Script or command needed to replace text in a file.
 

I am relatively new to linux. I need to replace occurences of chars (", ', `, and \) with (\", \', \`, and \\). I do not know of a linux function that will do that, only a PHP one which is str_replace. I need these characters changed to the new ones because PostgreSQL and MySQL dont recognize these characters. Any help i can get would be great. I assume i will have to use sed or gawk but i am completely unfamilier with how those work.

Thanks,
-farmerjoe

ok, this is REALLY quick and dirty, but it should actually get the work done. It is not failsafe by any means, and will happily change \" to \\\" (first \ to \\, then " to \") So the first one, which turns the \ into \\ must be run first. You better not use any of the characters for anything else, or you need a more advanced solution :-) (which i dont have time to try and think up right now)

perl -pi -e 's/\\/\\\\/g' file
perl -pi -e 's/"/\\"/g' file
perl -pi -e "s/\'/\\\'/g" file
perl -pi -e 's/\`/\\\`/g' file

Thanks! that should do the trick! i was having a lot trouble changing the ' character using sed alone. perl worked nicely.

-farmerjoe